Polar classification scheme sheds light on bold expeditions that never were

System aims to uncover whether unsupported crossings had no human help and verify accuracy of record-breaking feats

Polar exploration," said Apsley Cherry-Garrard, the companion of Capt Robert Falcon Scott, who later found the Antarctic explorer's body, is at once the cleanest and most isolated way of having a bad time that has yet been devised."

But while previous generations of polar travellers devised their own rules for their gruelling journeys, a new certification scheme has been launched after growing controversy over allegedly inflated claims of exploits at the Earth's two poles.